Pauli-principle driven correlations in four-neutron nuclear decays
Abstract
Mechanism of simultaneous non-sequential four-neutron () emission (or `true' -decay) has been considered in phenomenological five-body approach. This approach is analogous to the model of the direct decay to the continuum often applied to - and -decays. It is demonstrated that -decay fragments should have specific energy and angular correlations reflecting strong spatial correlations of `valence' nucleons orbiting in their -precursors. Due to the Pauli exclusion principle, the valence neutrons are pushed to the symmetry-allowed configurations in the -precursor structure, which causes a `Pauli focusing' effect. Prospects of the observation of the Pauli focusing have been considered for the -precursors H and O. Fingerprints of their nuclear structure or/and decay dynamics are predicted.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1808.00513,
title = {Pauli-principle driven correlations in four-neutron nuclear decays},
author = {P. G. Sharov and L. V. Grigorenko and A. Ismailova and M. V. Zhukov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.00513},
year = {2019}
}